The only light
by LadyBardock
Summary: It was just a mission.. But suddenly everything goes wrong... Will they hold on to each other when everything else they know disappears from the world? NejiHina Don't like don't read.
1. Chapter 1

One more scouting mission, it should be as always but this time it wasn't. Instead of scouting the boarders of the Land of fire, they were scouting a not well know region in the land of wind. Instead of having a whole squad he only had one person to help him, not that he needed any help anyway… Instead of having one of his friends the second person had to be her… It's not like he heated her or anything, those feelings died after the Chunin exam, but that didn't mean he liked her or sought her presence. She was a pain, not in herself, but a painful reminder of everything bad that happened during his whole life. That's why he carefully avoided her, those few family occasions were enough for him. This mission was a surprise to both, he could see the shock on her face when the Hokage had announced it. And he didn't have to be the genius he was to see that she was terrified.

He speeded up a bit and looked back if she was keeping pace with him, which to his surprise she did. He didn't say anything, because there was nothing to say. They both had one goal, finish the task as fast as possible and get rid of the presence of each other, or at least that was what he thought…

She was thinking about something a bit different. She too had regrets of the past, that was for sure. But it wasn't like she wanted to avoid him or anything. Quite contrary, the liked looking at him. His calm and swift moves, the way his hair shined in the rays of the setting sun. She wanted to find the courage in herself to look him in the eye and talk like normal comrades, like friends… then maybe they could really become friends… But every time there was an opportunity he left immediately without saying a word to her. She knew why, the pain of the past was still in between them. And as he went the other way she never could find the courage to stop him and start a conversation on her own.

When years passed her pain faded, and she was ready to try. Many things changed in her life, she was no longer weak, and usually she didn't stumble anymore. With time she learned to value the most important things in life and gain strength from them. One of those things were friends. Her beloved friends who always supported her and helped her. But deep inside she knew there was one thing her life lacked… And it was him, his acceptance, his friendship and help. It would mean coming to terms with the past, forgiving what was to be forgiven and forgetting the rest. It would make her life complete.

She was so lost in her thought she almost went past him as he stopped. He looked surprise at her, but the same as for many hours he did not say a word.

"Are we stopping here for the night?" She hesitantly asked.

"We may, if you are tired." He replied briefly. "I would prefer to eat something and continue on our way. With byakugan the darkness is not an obstacle. And we are on a scouting mission it would be wiser to find a safer place to spend the night."

"I'm not tired." She replied and quickly began unpacking her things and preparing their meal.

They eat quickly, and moved out shortly. Not saying a word more. She watched him from behind as he lead the way through the darkness and she did not dare move ahead of him. She looked at him and tried to gather her courage. This was her chance, this mission was her chance. And the moment she heard about it she was scared to death not to waste it… She speeded up and ran alongside him. He looked at her surprised.

"Are you tired?" He finally asked.

"No. I'm not. I used to do a lot of long runs like this with Kiba and Akamaru." She answered tried to hide the shaking of her voice.

"Good for you." He replied and went silent again. They ran alongside in silence for almost an hour.

"Those hills over there lead to the mountain up ahead." Neji noticed out loud. "Maybe we'll find a suitable place to spend the night there."

"Hai, Neji-ni-san." She answered and helped him to scout the area in search for shelter. "On the left, next to that tree there seems to be an entrance to a cave." She noticed and he looked the same way.

"Let's take a closer look." He jumped onto a higher branch and concentrated more on his byakugan.

"It seems empty." She noticed, before he could scan the cave himself. He took one more look to confirm her observation, and he had to agree it looked empty.

"Empty doesn't mean safe…" He noticed and pointed towards an openings in the forest. With their byakugans they could clearly see a thin line of smoke coming from probably a fire.

"The forest is dry. If it was a fire the smoke would be bigger." She noticed.

"That means there is someone who controls it and keeps it small on purpose." Was his response. "We need to investigate this closer."

They silently ran into that direction. Jumping higher on branches after almost a kilometer they spotted the first people. It was a camp. A military camp no less. They quickly counted the fighter and assessed their weapons, and smoothly turned back. They both knew coming up closer would mean an encounter, and that was strictly forbidden unless necessary. There were traps, but with their eyes and abilities there was no need to come up closer. The turned west and soon landed on the ground in front of the cave entrance.

"It's all clear." He told her and went inside. She followed him, and after entering made several signs which closed the cave behind them.

He looked at her with surprise.

"It's an ability I learned from Yamato-sensei." She commented. "Even if someone knows about this cave, he will not be able to find the entrance. Thus making it more of less safe. Of course it won't work well with ninja at a very high level but at least we don't need a night watch and both of us can sleep." She explained.

"We have to discuss what we saw. Clearly those men were not from the Sand, and where preparing to attack something or someone. They were trying to hide their presence but on the other hand there aren't very strong shinobi." He concluded as she began organizing her sleeping bag and belongings. "We should send a report to the Sand and Konoha and continue our mission." He decided.

"I agree." She replied. "Their behavior was very suspicious we need to be careful and warn our allies." He nodded and spread his sleeping bag on the ground several feet from her.

--

They woke up after several hours, eat and drank some water and began preparing to move out. He prepared a scroll with all the observations they made so far, and she took out her summoning scrolls. The Hokage said it was one the reasons why she sent Hinata on this mission not anyone else. Hinata had trained animal summoning for several years with very good effects.

After exiting the cave, she used one of the scrolls and soon a bird sat on her arm. She gently scratched the birds stomach and it squawked wit pleasure. Neji gave her the message and she placed it onto a special belt on the birds leg, and set it free. The bird immediately set out towards Konoha.

"Let's go." He said and quickly moved out.

They travelled for at least twelve more hours non-stop. Noting down any bizarre things they noticed, but the day did not bring any more surprises so far. Soon they reached a small waterfall, and both looked at is thinking about ho desperately they need a bath. Many days of travel and no water to waste are not good circumstances to maintain hygiene. She looked at his and he nodded. They placed their things on one side on the small lake, she dropped part of her clothes and immediately jumped it. She swam a bit, and as the water was warm and pleasant she called to him to join her. Her smile was so warm, he noticed, and he couldn't say no to her. As soon as feet touched the water her image faded and everything became pitch black. Eternal darkness. He reached out his hand but there was nothing around him. He could feel the water around his ankles and the cool breeze of the water fall, but he could not see anything. He called out to her, one twice. He heard a splash of water near him, and felt a hand grab him. It was her.

"Hinata what happened?" He asked.

"I don't know. My byakugan won't work! I can't see anything!" She whispered. "Everything suddenly became black. Do you remembered where we put our things?" She asked hesitantly.

"Around ten meters behind my back." He answered and holding hands they went out of the water.

"One, two, three… nine, ten…" She counted out loud carefully measuring the distance from the water. Soon she tripped on something, and just by touching it she determined it was a backpack, probably hers or Neji's. She picked it up, and gave the other one to Neji. They were all alone, it never-ending darkness… Holding hands they stood there lost as little children…


	2. Chapter 2

Suddenly there was a shine of lightning in the sky above them. Neji using that only light looked at Hinata and couldn't care to notice how scared and helpless she seemed with her hair wet, clothes wet and fright in her eyes. He was scared too… things like there weren't normal. He grabbed her hand tighter trying to give her some courage and she shortly smiled… He smiled back, suddenly it didn't matter they were alone and lost and in strange circumstances, the only things ,matter was they there weren't alone. And first time from the beginning of this mission he had to admit it, her presence really was useful. The roar of thunder was heard again and they both observed a second bolt of lightning cross the sky above them. Soon drops of rain hit them, he pulled her towards a rock shelf close to the waterfall to get some cover. It was getting really cold and she was all wet. She quickly took her back pack from him and took out a towel to dry herself, but as all her clothes were wet as well it didn't help. She looked helplessly at him and he knew what she was asking for, he turned his back towards her and tried to concentrate on something far in front of him and not on the rustling of clothes behind him… He had to move back a step because the rain began to lash at him.

"Are you ready?" He asked impatiently, irritated that water was falling on him.

"Oh just a minute!" She cried, but it was too late he had already turned around. Fortunately for her she already managed to change her underwear, but she was just wearing a top and panties so it wasn't very comfortable. Not very modest indeed but better this then having nothing on she thanked God. She quickly reached into her pack to find some warm clothes, but before she managed to find it and put it on, he already had a great view of her body as she bent down to reach into her back. He decided that no harm ever came from looking, after all he saw Tenten and other girls partially undressed before. Mission did not allow intimacy and modesty, so a bra and panties weren't that unusual. But taking a second look at her he knew why she was so ashamed and usually tightly dressed. She could not be compared to Tenten or Sakura or even Ino in any way… She had much much… he swallowed… bigger… He scolded himself inwardly, she was HER, and he couldn't possible even consider her as a female, not to say attractive female… Not to mention that she was family, quite close family, and main branch… He swallowed again and looked away from her trying to think of anything else but her…

"I'm ready!" She finally said trying to catch her breath. He turned back and came closer under the rock so that less rain would fall on him. The sky was slowly turning into it's usually dull rainy grey. He looked at the waterfall and trees around them and tried his Byakugan and to his relief it worked normally. He could clearly see the water, the trees, the grass, more trees… his eyes raced back to her… and he firmly turned his byakugan off… first time in his life he regretted having such a wide range of sight… seeing not enough was bad, but seeing too much could be even worse…

_He must think I am some kind of helpless idiot_ she decided noticing that he had clutched his fists and wasn't looking her way.

"Let me prepare something to eat, we haven't eaten anything since breakfast and that was many hours ago." He told her and kneeled down to take food out of their bags.

"How long do you think this rain will last?" she asked quietly.

"Who knows… The cloud cover is very thick. It might rain for a short period as well as for many hours." He told her.

"What are we going to do?" She asked tentatively.

"Let's stay here for now… There is enough room to sleep if the rain doesn't stop." He replied giving her a sandwich.

"What if the rain doesn't stop until morning?" She bit the sandwich and watched him sit down to eat his.

"We'll see in the morning…" He replied and concentrated on his food.

The ate in silence and observed the rain and sky. Night was slowly falling upon them, and it was getting colder. She took out her sleeping bag and squeezed into it… He kept wondering how she could have done it considering her… He scolded himself again… He obviously spent too much time with Kakashi, Kiba, Shikamaru and Naruto lately… They were hentai and as till today he was normal…. He scolded himself again. He was still normal… nothing after all changed, it wasn't something he couldn't control… At least he tried to convince himself. He hesitantly took out his sleeping bag and took a look around their shelter and noticed that sleeping there was not the best of ideas. When she took out her bag here was little space left for him. And he hated sleeping next to someone, usually when on mission he slept alone a bit away from the other, and considering the circumstances he did not want to sleep next to HER… But there was no choice, unless he wanted to sleep in the rain… He got into his sleeping bag and lay down, but the rain was still lashing so he had to move back, so he landed just next to her. He closed his eyes and slowly fell into darkness.

She observed his back for a moment thinking about the day, something was wrong but she could not determine what… At least she had him, she smiled inwardly remembering how he held her hand and comforted her in the darkness. She slowly feel asleep.

He woke up feeling cold, it was the middle of the night, and it was unusually cold for this time of year. He could feel her shiver against his back, while he could also feel part of his sleeping bag was wet from the stupid rain. He turned over and looked at her. She was fast asleep. He sighted and decided to do something he would normally never consider. He turned around in his sleeping bag and gently lifted her and moved her towards their bags and the wall, this time he did not turn his back on her, instead he let her snuggle into his chest. He kept repeating to himself that it was for their good, sleeping closer meant it was warmer, and sleeping closer to the wall meant less of his sleeping bag would get wet from the rain… But deep inside he knew..


	3. Chapter 3

The rain ended just before dawn, as rapidly as it started. The moment they first rays of sunlight touch the earth they were ready to move out.

He tried not to think of the tortures of last night, and she couldn't stop blushing at the thought that she woke up in his arms. He avoided her eyes and he avoided his and somehow they survived the morning.

At the end of the day they reached their destination and before night fall they turned back towards Konoha. Their return route was longer because they had some more points to scout. But it did not matter to them, this mission proved to be generally easy, not taking into consideration the waterfall incident.

It was a clam journey… Too calm for his taste. She was happy they had no unexpected encounters but she was started to get worried because in fact they hadn't met anyone at all on their way…

Soon the scenery changed and they entered sandy areas, as indicated on the map, but they should have went through several villages which were simply not there…

"Neji-nissan! Something is wrong!" She stopped on a tree and he jumped next to her. "I know this part of the forest because my team had a mission here, but nothing looks the same. Look at that rock…" She pointed at a huge boulder. " It was there before but those smaller ones weren't!"

"Are you sure Hinata-sama?" He asked carefully analyzing their surroundings. "I agree something is not right. We should hurry back to the village." He replied and set off. She obediently followed…

It took them two more days to reach the village… But what they saw made them terrified. Nothing looked as it used to. There were no walls around the village. Everything simply looked different. More dirty, more derelict… They couldn't find a single known face or building. Suddenly Hinata noticed something a familiar figure in the distance. She waved her hand and cried out "Ino-san!" and they ran up to the surprised girl. She was dressed totally differently, in a long skirt, and shirt. Her hair were pinned up in a bun and covered with cloth. But one this was for sure it was Ino. Or is seemed so. The girl looked at them with surprise and asked "Do I know you?"

"Ino we used to go to school together!" Hinata cried in terror.

"School? There is no school around here." The girl whispered back, looking around if anyone was listening to their conversation.

"We used to train together to be ninja!" Hinata told her and began shaking.

"Ninja? Here? Stop dreaming of fairy tales, ninja are a story of the past, they all left as soon as the thieves and murderers came…" The girls told them.

"What about your father?" Neji asked attentively.

"That old bastard? He's long since dead. And good riddance I must say!" The girl told them. "I'm sorry but I have to go back to my duties." She began heading towards one of the cleanest looking buildings in town. "Wait a second!" Neji yelled and she stopped for a moment.

"Can you tell us where to find the Hyuuga clan?" He asked as she turned back towards them.

"Hyuuga? I don't think I've ever… Wait a minute! I think there used to be a Hyuuga clan but most of them died in the plague ten or twenty years ago… They say some survivors left the village for good and were banished to live in the forests… I really have to go…" she ran quickly away from them.

They looked at each other not knowing what to say or do, but the decision what not theirs to make.

"Hey you who are you and what are you doing here?" They saw a tall man in some kind of a uniform approach them.

"We were just looking for someone..." Neji began.

"I don't care!" The man yelled at him. "We don't like strangers pushing their nose into places that don't belong!" The man came closer. He reached towards Hinata. "Well I wouldn't mind if your pretty face was around here more often." Neji brutally pushed the man's hand away.

"Why you!" The man shouted and shot his fist and Neji, but the prodigy was faster and a clean juuken strike his the man. Neji looked around and noticed that caused quite a commotion, so he grabbed Hinata's hand and jumped onto a nearby roof. They ran as far away as possible…


End file.
